Original post by PalidineAnyway, prototypes of the dev kits are only available to a small number of the major publishers. Inside those publishers engineers are struggling to figure out how to code for them. Basically it's a paradigm shift into highly threaded application programming for the new games.

Original post by kodeninjaTherefore I ask whats to stop someone from simply createing a linux-based PS3 game? They have GCC and an OS to develop on. Perhaps, it won't be native like store bought games, but its definatly giant leap from a 10,000$ dev kit to a 300$ ps3...

A lack of a video card driver from nvidia. The open source "nv" drivers are somewhat lacking compared to the offical closed source ones from nvidia.

Original post by PalidineThe short and sad answer is the hobby programmers cannot make games for any of the new consoles coming out. To make a game you need a license deal with sony, nintendo or microsoft and you need dev kits which I assume will run about $10,000 each.

It kinda sucks but that's the way the industry is going. =/

I have to agree that a hobby developer is probably not going to be making any console games. But just to keep the dream alive i'll point you in the direction of Alien Hominid - a game that started life out as a web based Macromedia Flash game, but made it to the PS2 and Gamecube.

In terms of hobbyist PS3 development, I think things are looking quite positive.

Ken Kutaragi, the head honcho at Sony Computer Entertainment, has talked in a number of interviews now about fostering an open platform with PS3 where the community can come in and make software for it. He wants that to happen to encourage software development for Cell. He views it as much as a computer as a games system.

I think the only catch would be that you won't be able to commercially distribute any games you make for it, as obviously Sony wants to keep the licensing structure in place for that kind of software.

What we know is:

1) Sony is seriously considering pre-installing Linux on every PS3 hard disk, and wants to allow for open community development on it.

2) IBM and Sony are "open sourcing" Cell - they very recently release detailed technical documentation aimed at potential Cell programmers, and it's available on IBM's site here:

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/power/cell/

That should be your first port of call if you're interested in programming Cell. Later on in the summer they're even going to freely release Cell emulators for different platforms to let you start coding for it before you get hardware. There's no doubt in my mind that if Sony put Linux on PS3, a compiler would be available for Cell on it.

3) The question would then be re. graphics APIs. They're using a variant of OpenGL ES, and although they're not compelled to make it freely available, I think they would. NVidia already makes its tools and Cg compilers etc. freely available for download, so it wouldn't be a massive leap to make them freely available for PS3 as long as Sony said "OK".

Just remember also, they did this exact same thing with PS2, just with a limited number of units, so I don't think it's a big stretch to think they'll do the same with PS3, but perhaps on a bigger scale this time.

I can hardly believe how negative some of the posts here have been! Travis, if you are serious about making games, all you need is passion & devotion. I'll admit that there are not many 14 year olds out there who are likely to stick out the tough times during game development, it's a rather idealistic goal, but who are we to say it's not possible? To those who posted negatively, perhaps Travis is the one 14 year old who can prove just how wrong you are?

I have been developing games since the 80's, started on the 8-bit NES, I've worked with teams large & small. I can tell you with conviction that smaller teams are more fun, more collaborative and likely to create far more innovative product than a 100+ team.

It IS possible for tiny teams & individuals to convince the likes of MS that a project is worthy of them bestowing dev kits, you do NOT have to be funded by a large publisher, I know this for a fact. Finding the right people to talk to within MS, & Sony (Nintendo, not so easy just yet) is not as difficult as you might think, infact individuals from both can be found at various small indie game conferences around the U.S. at the moment (friend of mine from MS will be at the Indie Games Conference (google IGC) next week, with dev-kits infact, hoping to find the next bright spark with a great game idea & the passion to pull it off.

Travis, if you want more info please email me at fnbrit at hotmail (I will be out of country next Weds for 3 weeks, so email me before or don't expect a response for 3 weeks).

I remember reading about a number of PS3 dev's switching to the XBox 360 due to sony demanding some very strict quality standards. The most realistic way of really getting to develop on one of those next gen consoles is to work for a company making titles for them.

Sony have always demanded very strict quality standards, you simply can't get your game to market (in the US, its a little easier in Europe) if it is not competative with the current leader in the genre you are targetting.

Microsoft are a little more leniant but do still want to have a say in who gets dev kits so they are cherry picking concepts they like and that have some chance of coming to fruition.

Nintendo...not really too much trouble getting through quality standards, if you can get approval status you can pretty much develop anything you like, finding a publisher who wants to fork out the up fronts, for the expensive duplication is sometimes a problem...but getting approval status is not as easy as it used to be and you need to be financially viable to even be considered.

Here is the 'hallelujah' that will answer all of our hobbyist prayers!!

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/livearcade/default.htm

If you check out the list of games here u'll see that many of them are titles commercially available online (either to play for free or to buy) and have been for a while..

Surely this is the perfect avenue for hobbyist devs to create exciting and interesting content with the possibility of not only widespread but worldwide distribution and marketing all handled for you..

All you need is some time, effort and a good idea and i'm sure you could easily bang together a title that would sell in the bucketloads once X360 gets out onto the market..

Now all we need to find out is how one would approach MS with an IP in the hopes of publishing and distribution via the Xbox Live Arcade..

Original post by goalied00dWell MS has said that you can emulate 360 games on PC hardware, so maybe there will be an option to ommit the actual 360 debug hardware and just get the SDK for visual studio instead.

Emulation isn't hardware and the MS guide (linked above) is a guide for developers wanting to get a headstart before they get hold of the devkits. I doubt MS would let anyone deploy a product on Live Arcade without a whole heap of verification or accept any product for verification that hadn't been developed using their hardware.

Not to kill dreams but if you have the skills, business plan and are willing to show you can make good games (RealArcade, Yahoo Games etc etc) that sell then MS would probably be interested in letting you develop for Live Arcade.

Original post by MalalJsut going back a page to Anon who said small, low budget teams can't do anything potentially AAA

http://www.projectoffset.com

Malal

I have to agree with the AP, what you have there looks very nice, but basically it’s a couple of selected scenes and a few model animation demo's. All skilfully done by people who know their stuff, but nothing more than what you'd see in most competent peoples portfolios.

Also if you read the website carefully, they are looking for some serious investment to ramp up numbers and make the project commercially viable, its clear they know they need much more money and many more staff to take this to market.

They are clearly gifted people (think there are just 3 of them) but to get that to AAA standard they need a lot more help, and that supports the AP's argument I think.

RCT was not "designed and created" by one person. Check the game credits. Sawyer may have done the bulk of the design, and he did all the programming, but there were other people onboard doing things like artwork.